Former Silver Ferns coach Yvonne Willering says spreading international players more evenly across the New Zealand teams won’t necessarily solve the imbalance in the trans-Tasman netball competition.
While all five Australian teams in the ANZ Championship have shown they’re highly competitive, New Zealand have problems.
Three of their five teams – the Tactix, Mystics and Pulse – are propping up the ladder.
And the last-placed Pulse haven’t won a single game since the competition began in 2008, lending weight to suggestions one of the New Zealand teams should be cut from the competition.
Most of New Zealand’s top talent is stacked into two teams – the second-placed Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic, with seven current New Zealand internationals, and the mid-table Southern Steel, with six current Silver Ferns and two former international stars in Adine Wilson and Donna Wilkins.
But Willering, sacked as Mystics coach last year, said a more even spread of Silver Ferns through the New Zealand teams could actually jeopardise their competitiveness against their Australian counterparts.
“A lot of the Australian teams have a scattering of current Australian squad members, but even with that spread, they are still very competitive in the league,” Willering said.
“If we started spreading our players around that much, I just don’t know whether we’d still be competitive against the Australian teams.
“Most of our New Zealand players are within the Magic and Steel. If you dilute that, I think certainly we’d have a closer competition among ourselves but I don’t know how we’d match our skills against the Australians.”
Earlier this month, former Australian netballer Kath Harby-Williams called for one of the New Zealand teams in the 10-team competition to be culled.
Having four teams, with the talent spread evenly, would improve the standing of the New Zealand sides, she said.
However, competition general manager Anthony Everard said in response that there was “no chance” a New Zealand team would be cut.
Willering suggested Australia’s greater playing depth would be reflected when the two respective national teams were selected later in the year.
“We’re looking for people in some positions at the moment,” she said.
“For instance, there are players that have had children and come back, and there’s still a spot for them in the Silver Ferns.
“That shows competition for positions probably isn’t as great as we’d like it to be.”
denis james
Guest
Greg,thats reassuring to know. I'm not so sure about the "bitter medicine" Look at the way the Qld and WA teams have developed. Mix the old hands with the hungry and talented youngsters that abound relatively unseen in the lower grades and anything can happen. Those girls are getting taller and stronger(and faster) with every generation. May take a season to settle but after that! Look out!. The key is sponsorship. And as I said before preferably sponsorship from an airline or two to take the sting out of traveling costs. The Competition has so much going for it its got to be an ad mans dream. No question that the players if given the chance can step up. Its the ability of the Organizers that when you get down to it will make the difference.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
denis - if one believes what one hears, then most netball people (coaches, commentators, etc.) in NZ want this competition to go to a double round. They realise that to start off with it would be a bitter medicine in terms of results for the NZ teams, but they are of the view that the only way to improve is to take that bitter medicine. responding to these comments, administrators seem to be saying that cost is the issue preventing a double round, but that hopefully the competition will grow to a state of financial security where this can take place (the semi-conference, 1.5-round system is apparently contractually locked in for next year, but after that is open to negotiation). it interests me that at the same time as all this is going on in netball, Super 14 rugby is moving in the opposite direction, i.e., they will be introducing a semi-conference system and guaranteed finals participation from all 3 countries. i don't know whether this means that people in general are never happy, or that netball is sensible where rugby is overly tribal.
denis james
Guest
At last some one seeing the Competition as it is.Though I think Greg you may be in the minority over there. The other inequality that get up my nose is the draw. I can put up with stacking the Kiwi teams, dont agree with it but understand that NZ national pride demands that one of the teams must, no matter how, dispute the final . However long term I believe it hurts both NZ netball development and the devalues the Comp itself . But if every team had an equal run against all the others then at least the final result would truly represent the teams actual abilities. And from the Aussie perspective giving all our Teams two shots at the Silver Ferns would help raise our standard too. Its a great spectator Sport with a huge development potential but with the way its currently set up I worry about long term sponsorship. And obtaining the $ is the key to both its continuity and development. If transport costs are whats driving the draw (as opposed to another attempt at tampering with the result, just kidding People) surely they can get one or two airlines as sponsors. On a humorous note that soft salary cap is farcical. Perhaps a hard cap would force a more even realignment of players. This is too good a competition to fail. The powers that be need to get their act in order .
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Willering is correct in one sense: spreading the talent around the five NZ franchises would leave them unable to compete with the Australian teams. But there is also a sense in which she is incorrect: spreading the talent around would at least help the average NZ standard to improve. Nothing is gained by having Silver Ferns sitting on the bench at the Magic and Steel while the other three NZ teams prop up the bottom of the table. Everard is correct: NZ should have five teams, because public interest in netball warrants it. One can draw some analogies here between TT netball and S14 rugby: NZ in rugby is Australia in netball, and vice versa. Thus Australia is about to get a 5th S14 franchise, even though it is clearly NZ that has the (much) greater player depth. Similarly, NZ should have 5 netball sides, the same as Australia, even though Australia has much greater depth. And on the field, the Australian rugby sides, with a very even spread of talent across the Brumbies, Waratahs and the Force, have failed to have any team reach the final 4 (but with all these three very close to making it). This is what would probably happen to NZ netball if the talent was spread evenly, as opposed to the Magic having a concentration of talent, and therefore being a shoe-in to make the finals, and quite possibly win the competition. This discussion also highlights the irregularites that can arise in an international sporting competition with parts run by different national bodies. If one thinks about, the miracle is that it works at all, let alone that it runs so well.